Another bruising day on the Australian share market on Friday saw it shed almost $40 billion and sink to a six-month low as hopes for US rate cuts once again diminished.
The ASX 200 dropped by 136.20 points, or 1.6%, to 8416.50 points as AI worries in the US transferred directly to our market.
That slide means it has lost 2.5% this week alone and 5.2% in November, meaning this could well end up the worst market month since September 2022.
Rollercoaster jump and dip in US
A massive roller coaster ride on the US market really heaped on the uncertainty after it initially soared 1.9% before entirely reversing that and then falling 1.6%.
Once again uncertainty about official interest rates in the US were heightened as the US economy added 119,000 jobs against forecasts of just 50,000.
A December rate cut is now seen as a lineball decision and there is no shortage of forecasts that the rate cutting cycle could be much shorter and shallower than previously thought.
Big Miners hit hard
Big mining companies were hammered following reports that China was going to halt purchases of lower quality iron ore with BHP (ASX: BHP) crunched by 3.2% to $40.37, Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) down 3.2% to $127.85 and Fortescue (ASX: FMG) down 5.5% to $20.06.
It was a similar story for the big gold miners as the falling gold price was reflected in a 6.1% fall in the price for Newmont (ASX: NEM) to $126.43 and Northern Star (ASX: NST) lost 4% to $25.50.
Energy stocks were also in trouble as crude prices slipped as Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky agreed to work on a new peace framework, with shares in Woodside (ASX: WDS) losing 2.7% to $25.41 and Santos shares down 3% to $6.43.
Banks mainly still falling
Shareholders in former market darling Commonwealth Bank (ASX: CBA) had a brief reprieve from a week of heavy selling as the shares held flat at $153.06, although the rest of the banking sector was weaker with ANZ (ASX: ANZ) and Westpac (ASX: WBC) losing 1.5 % and 1.6% while National Australia Bank (ASX: NAB) fell 0.8% to $40.56.
Tech stocks performed a bit better than offshore with WiseTech Global (ASX: WTC) up 2.4% to $65.76 after reaffirming its 2025-26 earnings guidance of $550million to $585 million.
Elsewhere the tech crunch from overseas was more noticeable with TechnologyOne (ASX: TNE) shares down 3.4% and Codan shares (ASX: CDA) dropping almost 4%.
Some news reversed a price recovery by Mayne Pharma (ASX: MYX) which on Thursday had rallied hard – up 21% - on speculation that the takeover by Cosette might get the green light.
When Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced he had instead blocked the $672 million bid by US healthcare giant Cosette because it was contrary to Australia’s national interest, the shares lost a thumping 23% before being placed in a trading halt.
Offers keep on coming
In other takeover action Webjet (ASX: WJL) rose 1.7% to 90.5¢ after BGH Capital upped its takeover bid to 91¢ per share in cash for the shares it does not own.
That offer followed one by Helloworld earlier in the week for 90¢.
Shares in jewellery chain Lovisa (ASX: LOV) fell 13.8% to $30.02 after same store sales grew at 3.5%, short of the 5.3% forecast.
Also suffering for downgrading its earnings forecast due to soft trading and heavy discounting were shares in Accent Group (ASX: AX1) which dropped by 15.4% to $1.01.
The week ahead
There will be plenty of interesting data points for markets to chew on in the coming week with the first release of the complete Australian monthly consumer price index (CPI) out on Wednesday.
Most observers are tipping a 0.2% dip during October courtesy of continuing electricity subsidies paid out in NSW and WA, although the annual figure is still likely to be around 3.6%.
Rates uncertainty weighing on markets
There is a lot of uncertainty around the number though and it will have a direct bearing on the likelihood of further official interest rate cuts in Australia, so this could well be a live market mover.
Other than that there is a host of data releases in the US as well as the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday which means their financial markets are closed.
Other potential market movers include the release of the UK Budget on Wednesday and the New Zealand reserve bank interest rates decision on the same day.
The last of the US third quarter company results will also be released and there are a swag of company annual meetings scheduled which could move some individual stocks.
